


traveler, what have you seen?

by errorryx



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Blood Vines, Canon Divergent, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Blood, Tales Of The SMP, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:34:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29199201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errorryx/pseuds/errorryx
Summary: “I’m so sorry,” he said.This wouldn’t mess up the timeline if he left now. He didn’t even look like he used to, anyway. Sapnap would be confused, but he would forget about it eventually, and when he met Karl later on, he wouldn’t suspect anything.“Hey, don’t be sorry! You didn’t do anything,” Sapnap said. His voice sounded so carefree that it brought tears to Karl’s eyes. “Woah, are you crying?”This would fuck everything up, if he did this.-------Karl tried for so long to fix everything, but he failed. He watched everyone that he loved die, over and over again. He's ready to admit defeat. He can't save them.But maybe he can start over.-------All poetry written by me
Relationships: Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 16
Kudos: 141





	1. the backs of my eyes hum with things i've never done

**Author's Note:**

> i've been waiting to die  
> three hundred years of my life  
> and floating inside  
> been trying to weather the tides  
> now thrown underwater  
> i lifted you up from the deep  
> your heart beats unsteady  
> i'll wake you from your sleep
> 
> traveler, what have you seen?  
> your eyes are glazed over  
> what kind of miseries  
> brought you to this?  
> you've spilled your blood  
> across all seven seas  
> what kind of monster  
> could make your skin bleed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Welcome Home, Son by Radical Face

“Who are you?” Sapnap asked.

Karl just stared. He looked so young, so happy, so _whole,_ so blissfully unaware of everything that was to come. Not for the first time, Karl wished none of this had ever happened. He wished he and Sapnap and Quackity had run away together from this whole mess and never looked back.

Karl looked into Sapnap’s eyes and remembered the day he saw Sapnap die. It wasn’t too long ago, either. Only two years in the future.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

This wouldn’t mess up the timeline if he left now. He didn’t even look like he used to, anyway. Sapnap would be confused, but he would forget about it eventually, and when he met Karl later on, he wouldn’t suspect anything.

“Hey, don’t be sorry! You didn’t do anything,” Sapnap said. His voice sounded so carefree that it brought tears to Karl’s eyes. “Woah, are you crying?”

This would fuck everything up, if he did this. 

“I need help,” Karl admitted.

“I’ll take you back to the community house. It’s much safer than out here. You really shouldn’t be out at night with no armor, you know.” Sapnap reached out his hand, and against his better judgment, Karl took it. Sapnap rubbed a thumb across Karl’s palm comfortingly. “Hey, what’s that book you’re holding? I’ve never seen a book that looks like that.”

“You wouldn’t have,” Karl said, cradling it protectively in his other arm. “It’s kind of special.”

“That’s chill. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna.” They came across the community house, sitting in the center of its tranquil lake, looking the way it had when Karl had first laid eyes on it. It nearly brought him to tears again. 

He heard voices inside, and took a step back. “Who’s in there?” he asked Sapnap. “I can’t go in there if-”

Sapnap opened the door and peeked inside. “It’s just George, Alyssa, and Callahan.”

“Not Dream?”

“You know Dream?” Sapnap asked. “Oh, I guess you would, since he let you in here. No, he’s not around, I don’t think. Why, do you want me to message him?”

“Oh, god, no,” Karl said. “Do not do that.” 

As he stood at the door to the community house, he felt the familiar sensation in the back of his mind that he was about to disrupt the timeline. It had held steady for this short conversation, but if he didn’t leave, if he stepped through these doors, it would divulge. Time travel within the same timeline was easy enough, but traveling across timelines was much more difficult, much more likely to erase even more of the memories he was already barely clinging to.

But why would he want to stay in this timeline, anyway? What did it have left for him? He had tried so many times to fix things, and he had failed again and again and again. What did it matter if he stayed here instead? 

He’d seen all his friends die. He’d witnessed the destruction of everything that he cared about, everything he’d built and worked for. His efforts to save the SMP were beyond futile now. But if he started it all over here, he would have a much better chance of changing things. He could stop everything. 

In the end, it wasn’t a difficult choice. He stepped through the doorway. 

He turned back to Sapnap, who had a confused expression on his face, and said, “I love you so much.”

“Uhh… thanks? Are you doing okay, man?”

Karl took in a deep breath, taking it all in. The torchlight and the warmth, the beds all in a row, George and Alyssa and Callahan all staring at him from the other side of the room. 

“This is the best I’ve felt in years,” he said.

“Do you have anything in your inventory, or just that book?” Sapnap asked.

“Just the book.” It was the only thing that came with him when he traveled. Everything else was stuck in the present, and anything that he collected would vanish if he returned. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you some stuff.” Sapnap opened one of the chests along the wall and pulled out a sword, a stone pickaxe, a half-used iron shovel, a dozen torches, and a leather chestplate and boots. “This is all we’ve got lying around, but we could go mining and get you better stuff later?” 

Karl took everything that Sapnap gave him, putting on the leather armor and storing the rest of it, including the book, safely away in the back of his inventory. “Thanks,” he said. “I’d love that.”

“Oh! You need food, too! You’re probably really hungry.” Sapnap dashed over to the furnace and pulled out half a stack of cooked steak. “Here ya go!”

“Sapnap, you jerk, that was my steak,” Alyssa complained. 

“Oh, come on, I’ll repay you at some point.”

“No you won’t,” she said knowingly.

“Whatever.” Sapnap turned to Karl. “These are Alyssa, Callahan and George,” he told him. “Guys, this is…”

“Karl,” Karl supplied. “I’m Karl Jacobs. Thank you, Sapnap, for everything.”

“Uh, you’re welcome!” Sapnap said. “Wait, how did you know my name?”

Karl hesitated, but Alyssa didn’t. “I just said your name, idiot,” she said affectionately. 

“Dumbass,” George muttered, less affectionately.

“Ohhh,” Sapnap said, realizing. “I guess I am an idiot. Karl, do you wanna see the upstairs?”

“Sure,” Karl said, following him up the spiral staircase. He hadn’t been to the community house, or any of its iterations, in a very long time. This version of the community house was very ugly, very lackluster, having not even been remodeled yet, let alone destroyed, reconstructed, and destroyed again.

“We’ve got some pet fish in here,” Sapnap said proudly. “Mars is my fish. Beckerson is Dream’s, or George’s. We all fish a lot from up on the roof. There’s eight of us here- the ones you haven’t met are Bad, Sam, Ponk, and you said you already know Dream.”

“I already know all of you,” Karl said before he could stop himself.

“You what?” 

“Uh.” He coughed. “I meant-”

“Have you been watching us or something? That’s kinda creepy, dude.” Sapnap backed away from Karl, eyeing him distrustfully. 

“No, it’s not like that.” Karl considered, briefly, coming up with some kind of believable lie. Maybe he could say that Dream had already told him all about everyone in the SMP. But that would be disproven the second Dream showed up. 

Even if he lied to all the others, he couldn’t lie to Sapnap. He had to tell him the truth. He had to tell him everything.


	2. in the meadow where the black breeze blows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> alone in the city of silhouettes  
> i hold on tight to that image of your smile  
> as i pass by your street corner coffeeshop  
> hold the dust of your head in my hands  
> and kiss the space where your lips should be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Black Wave by the Shins
> 
> trigger warning- blood and body horror in this chapter relating to the blood vines

“ _Tales from the SMP,_ ” Sapnap read. “From this SMP, you mean? There can’t be that many tales, it’s brand new.”

“That’s what Dream told you,” Karl said. “That’s what he let you all think.”

Sapnap stared at him. “Explain.”

There was so much to explain. Where was he supposed to start? He’d never even tried anything like this before. Even the Sapnap and Quackity of the normal timeline knew next to nothing about Karl’s time traveling adventures.

“What is this thing?” Sapnap asked, flipping through the book. “The town that went mad? The lost city of Mizu? I’ve never heard of any of this stuff.”

“Stop there,” Karl said. “Seriously, don’t go any farther. You don’t want to know.” He took the book from Sapnap’s hands and skipped the pages that spoke of the disaster that would befall all of his friends. Sapnap was definitely not ready to hear about any of that yet. “This is the important stuff.”

In the back, he’d written pages and pages about the people he knew the best, so he’d remember them. He’d pasted photos in here, too, so he’d know what they looked like in case he ever forgot too much. Sapnap stared at a photo of him and Karl from early on, both of them beaming at each other, holding up their hands to show the rings on their fingers. It was labeled, _we got engaged!!!!_ in Karl’s handwriting, and Sapnap had also written, _I love you._

“This is me and you,” Sapnap said in wonder. “You’re- are you from the future?”

“I am,” Karl said. “Kind of.” He watched for Sapnap’s reaction.

“And in the future- we’re married?”

“We were going to be,” he said carefully. “A lot happened. We didn’t split up or anything, though. We just couldn't have the wedding.”

“That’s- wow.” Sapnap ran a hand through his hair. “That’s a lot. I can’t believe this.” He stared down at the photograph again. “That’s really me, huh? And you. You look a lot different here, though.”

“Yeah, like I said, a lot happened.”

“So all the stuff in this book is about what happens in the future?”

“And the past, some of it.”

“Okay,” Sapnap said. “Okay.” He seemed to be taking it well. He held the book with care, looking at it reverently, his fingers tracing the gold-leaf edges of the pages. “So why are you here now?”

“What do you mean?” Karl asked.

“What happened that you need to stop from happening?”

Karl closed his eyes, remembering.

In his mind he was back in the original timeline, back in the present, and there was no grass beneath his feet. It was all red, everything was red as far as the eye could see. He’d been away too long, trying to find the solution. It was over.

The further he walked, the more discouraged he got, wondering if it was all already gone. He didn’t see a single living soul, just structures crumbling, choked to death by the vines. He saw a human skeleton picked clean, red vines woven through the ribcage, wrapped around the neck and skull. He had no idea whose it was. He felt sick. He kept going.

“Karl?” a familiar voice called, and Karl, recognizing it instantly, ran in the direction of the sound. “It is you!” Sapnap said, sounding amazed. He was miraculously still alive, still breathing, but his eyes were cold and red, and his feet were submerged in the vines that smothered everything, rooted in place.

“I was too late,” Karl said. “Oh, god, Sapnap, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I tried so hard.”

He saw vines curling, crawling up Sapnap’s legs, winding around his torso, one tendril snaking up his face, and, as Karl watched in horror, stabbing through his eye. He couldn’t do anything about it. He’d traveled through hundreds of different time periods, he’d created six separate timelines, some inadvertently, and he still couldn’t save his friends.

“It’s okay,” Sapnap said, his veins bulging a bright crimson color. Blood dripped darkly down his face, and he doubled over and coughed red into his hands. “You tried your best, Karl. I still love you. You need to get out of here. Save yourself.”  
  
“Maybe I don’t want to save myself without you.” 

“Then go find me somewhere else. I’ll fall for you all over again, I promise. I won’t be able to help it.”

“I love you so much,” Karl said. “Sapnap, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sapnap said. “Now _go._ Before it’s too late. Save yourself, for me.”

And he had. He had returned to the In-Between and stayed there for days, weeks, months. He wasn’t sure. Time was irrelevant there, anyway. He couldn’t return to his anchor in time anymore- he’d felt its destruction. The egg had claimed it, all of it. He’d seen the future, seen that he’d have to wait a full decade before returning, when the egg would finally suck the land dry and wither away, leaving nothing but a barren wasteland. None of his friends would remain.

He opened his eyes, looking at the version of Sapnap he had now, the only one he had left. “I lost everything,” he said. “I failed. I couldn’t save you.” He could feel his eyes welling up with tears again.

“Oh,” Sapnap said. “Wow. That’s awful.”

“Yeah,” Karl said, taking the book back. “I want to tell you everything, Sapnap. But you have to keep this a secret. If that’s too much pressure to put on you, I understand. I can- I can go somewhere else instead, to a different time. I don’t have to stay if you don’t want me to.”

“No, that’s okay.” Sapnap looked up at him, a faint smile on his face. “Karl, I may not know you at all right now. But if we were going to get married, you must be a pretty cool dude. I wouldn’t get engaged to some loser. So I trust you. Whatever happens in the future, you can tell me.”

Karl hugged him. He wanted to do more, but he figured it would be too weird. “I’m so glad,” he said. “I’m going to make things right this time, however I can. I promise.”

“One thing, though,” Sapnap asked. “Is there a reason it’s a secret? Why can’t you tell the others?”

“You’re not going to want to hear the answer to that question yet,” Karl said. “You may not believe it. That’s okay. I don’t expect you to.”

“Whatever it is, you can tell me. Did one of my friends do something bad?”

Karl looked down. “Two of them.”  
  
“Two of them?” Sapnap’s eyes widened. “Who was it?”

“I really don’t know if I should tell you.”

“Tell me. Please. Now I have to know.”

Karl could never say no to Sapnap. He sighed. “Dream and Badboyhalo.”


	3. you can believe me now, this isn't happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i'm just a little thing  
> but i wasn't built for mercy  
> come take me to the place where i was made
> 
> where unkind hands and curses spit  
> from lips too cold to know  
> the touch of grace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Demon in Profile by The Afghan Whigs

“ _Bad_? Are you serious? I mean, Dream…” Sapnap trailed off. “I guess I can believe that Dream would… but… I don’t… _Bad_? You have to be kidding me.”

“He ended up being worse than Dream, actually, in the end,” Karl said. “I didn’t really know Bad too well before everything happened. He was always nice to me, but we didn’t talk much.”

“Bad’s one of my best friends,” Sapnap said confidently. “He’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met in my life. He might be _the_ kindest person I’ve ever met in my life. He doesn’t even swear. I don’t think I can believe you.”

“To his credit, I think he was under some kind of mind control.” Karl had seen others succumb to the sway of the egg before, but Bad had always been different. They were connected somehow. In all his travels, he’d never fully understood Bad’s relationship with the egg, only that Bad was the egg’s discoverer, the first to be affected by it, and he’d become its herald and strongest advocate.

“So it wasn’t really him, then, right? Because Bad would never hurt anybody.”

“I don’t know,” Karl said, but was distracted by two new voices that joined the ones downstairs. He recognized both of those voices- he’d learned to fear them both. “Speak of the devils, huh?”

“They haven’t done anything yet, though,” Sapnap said. “If you’re from the future, maybe you can turn things around!” He looked almost afraid. “Please don’t kill them.”

Karl laughed. “I don’t kill people. I’m just a traveler.” He’d never considered that Sapnap might be afraid of him- that anyone would be afraid of him, really. Besides his ability to jump through time, he was almost entirely defenseless. But Sapnap didn’t know that yet.

If he was smarter, he might use this to his advantage, but Karl had lost enough battles of wits with Dream over the years to know that he was no strategist, either. Dream would know him here, even if none of the others did, and Dream would find some way to best him. He always did.

So he might as well get the confrontation over with.

“I won’t touch them, I promise,” he told Sapnap. “They’re no danger yet. But, like I said, please keep this between us.”

“I will,” Sapnap promised, looking solemn. He started down the stairs, and Karl followed him. “Dream, Bad!” Sapnap said, switching over quickly to his usual carefree disposition. “This is Karl, he’s new.”

“Hi, Karl!” Bad said cheerfully. His voice lacked the eerie haunted quality that Karl remembered most from it. This version of Bad didn’t look the least bit threatening, in spite of his demon features. He was considerably shorter than he had been when he was under the egg’s control, shorter than most of the people in the room, actually. Last time Karl had seen him, Bad had been inhumanly tall. It was possible he’d been feeding off of the egg’s energy.

Dream, on the other hand, looked no less threatening than any of the previous times Karl had seen him. He held his mask at his side, but on seeing Karl, he slowly and deliberately put it back on. Before he did, Karl observed his reaction- he was distrustful, but there was no recognition in his gaze.

“Is that right?” Dream asked. “Karl, do you think I could talk to you in private?”

“That would be fine,” Karl said. If he was right- if Dream didn’t know him in this timeline- it would mean everything. It made sense, too. If Karl was already here, then Dream wouldn’t invite this timeline’s version of him to the SMP in the first place, and none of Karl’s previous trips to the past would ever have happened. The rules of timelines were tricky like that, but rarely did such a technicality work out in Karl’s favor.

He followed Dream out the door, and the moment he closed it Dream whirled on him. “Who are you? I didn’t invite you, how did you get in?”

Dream was an excellent actor, but Karl didn’t think he was acting. Karl’s acting, on the other hand, frequently left a little to be desired. He would have to deliver the performance of a lifetime if he was going to get away with this, but if he did, he might be able to fix this timeline without getting rid of Dream at all.

“My name is Karl, like I said. I came here on my own," he said. "You won’t be able to ban me- try it.” Since he’d time traveled here, rather than been invited, his invitation couldn’t be revoked. Technically, it never existed. He’d learned this the first time Dream had met him, when he’d time traveled back to the very beginning of the server and Dream attempted to ban him. It was a very convenient little loophole.

Dream opened his admin menu and did as he said. “What the _fuck._ How is this possible? What are you playing at here?”

“I know what you are,” Karl said. He could barely take himself seriously, but Dream didn’t know Karl at all, so he would have to. He pressed on. “I know everything about you, Dream. Or should I call you Cornelius? Or Hubert? Or-”

“Stop,” Dream said, his voice trembling. “Stop. Now. What do you want from me?”

“I know what’s coming,” Karl said. “Do you?”

“Where did you hear those names?” Dream demanded. “Who told you those things? Are you another-” He stopped himself, lowered his voice. “Another- _you know._ ”

Karl didn’t know, at all. He knew that Dream didn’t age, but he’d never learned why. “If I am,” he asked, “what would you care?”

“What would I _care?_ I’ve been alone for almost three centuries!”

Three centuries. So Dream was about fifty years older than the SMP. Karl made a mental note to write that down in the book. “I’m not here to be your friend,” he said. “But if you stay in line, we won’t be enemies, either.”

“Stay in line? What does that mean?”

“Your friends,” Karl said. 

“Don’t you dare touch them.”

“Of course. Only you can hurt them, right?”

Dream was silent for a very long time. Karl wished he could see his face. “It’s not like that,” he said finally. “I haven’t done anything to them.”

“No,” Karl said. “Not yet. I suggest you keep it that way.” He turned his back on Dream and reentered the community house, bristling with excitement. He couldn’t hold in his grin anymore. He had never in his wildest dreams expected to come out on top of an interaction with Dream like that. 

He gave Sapnap a reassuring smile and moved to sit down on the crafting table beside him. Sapnap raised his eyebrows and nudged George, exchanging a knowing glance.

“I know about the crafting table thing too,” Karl whispered to Sapnap. 

“Oh,” Sapnap said. “Well. Uh.” He turned furiously red. “I guess that makes sense.”

Dream returned inside a moment afterward. “Karl,” he said, hands clenched tightly at his side, “welcome to the Dream SMP, by the way. I don’t know if I ever officially said that. It’s a bit small right now, I know, but I’ve been planning on inviting more people soon.”

“You have?” George asked, sitting up in interest. He’d been close to dozing off beside Sapnap. “You didn’t tell us that.”

“I’m telling you all right now,” Dream said. “I invited Karl, and I’ve been thinking of inviting more. Lots more. I think it’ll be fun.”

“That does sound fun,” Bad said. “You know who I think you should invite?”

“Skeppy,” the entire room chorused. Callahan typed _Skeppy_ in the chat.

“You’re very predictable, Bad,” Sapnap teased.

“I might have a few recommendations,” Karl said innocently, smiling widely in Dream’s direction. Ideas were forming in his head. If he could really get Dream wrapped around his finger, he could stop Schlatt from ever coming. He could prevent Wilbur’s spiral into insanity. He could stop everything bad and get everyone working together to stop the egg. Karl still didn’t know how to stop it, but the SMP of his timeline had been full of some of the smartest and strongest people in the world. If there hadn’t been so much infighting, he was confident they could have overcome it together.

He was going to fix this, no matter what. 


	4. burn the pages of unwritten memoirs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> glassy-eyed and barefoot, you watch me spin around  
> two stupid kids in daydreams lie naked on the ground  
> the miracles we create between us never permeate  
> if we die, we die together, won't never be found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from Los Ageless by St. Vincent

“What was I like?” Sapnap asked. “You know, after all the bad stuff started happening?”

They were lying in the grass outside the community house, and Sapnap was fishing, but he was paying far more attention to Karl than the rod, and as a result he missed most of the fish. Karl sat with the _Tales_ in his lap, idly flipping through the pages.

Tommy had joined the server, and was already tearing a new path of chaos and destruction. Sapnap was eager to join him on the more harmless excursions, but Karl quietly warned him not to go on that rampage against Ponk and Alyssa. Sapnap listened to him, and just like that, Karl had prevented the Disc Saga.

“What were you like?” Karl echoed. “I don’t know. Amazing. Badass. Hot.”

“I’m already all those things, though,” Sapnap said without a hint of irony. He grinned. “I meant like, was I different? Was I all stoic and serious?”

“Well, we all were,” Karl said. “We had to be.”

It had been hard on him, in the beginning, when he’d started traveling. Before that, he’d been even less serious than Sapnap, taking everything lightly, making a joke out of the server’s constant wars and violence, living in a dream.

“If you can imagine,” he said, “I used to be innocent as hell. You used to protect me, back in the day. You kicked ass and you knew it. You burned shit down, you almost killed Techno on Doomsday, you stood up to Dream. You saved my life over and over. You saved a lot of people’s lives. You were strong.”

“You’re just saying that,” Sapnap laughed, but he looked pleased. “I mean, I may be awesome, but I’m not some big hero.”

“It’s true, though. All of it. You’re so much stronger than you think, Sapnap, and I like to think maybe if you realized it earlier, things would have been different.”

“Wow,” Sapnap breathed. “You’ve really got a way with words. I mean, damn.” He let the fishing pole fall to the side, ignoring the tug on the end of the line, and leaned against Karl, his arm snaking around Karl’s waist. 

It had been a while since he’d felt Sapnap’s touch, the only pair of hands he could trust completely to never hurt him. Near the end he was almost never home in his own timeline, trying desperately to put a stop to the inevitable. It had been an age since he could be comfortable like this in Sapnap’s arms.

He flinched. Badly.

“I’m sorry,” Sapnap said, quickly retreating. “I’m so sorry! Do you not like being touched? I should have asked!”

“No, that wasn’t…” Karl trailed off, unsure why he’d flinched. There was no reason for it. Well, maybe there was one. “It wasn’t your fault. We used to cuddle all the time. I thought it’d be easier, I thought I could just return to that, but…”

He was crying. He returned _Tales of the SMP_ to his inventory so it wouldn’t get wet. The book was impervious to water, as he’d learned in Mizu when he’d gotten it soaking wet multiple times, but he still hid it away.

“Normally I would offer you a hug,” Sapnap said. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“Sapnap, I love you and you could never do anything wrong.” Karl mopped at his tears with his sweater sleeves. “It’s just- I watched you die.”

“Oh.” Sapnap made a choked sound, taken aback. “That’s-”

“Please hold me,” Karl said, throwing himself into Sapnap’s arms.

It hurt less that time, leaning against Sapnap’s chest with his arms surrounding him comfortingly. He could almost forget that he’d watched those strong, muscled arms be drained of color and life by the vines that overtook them. He could almost forget the scent in the air, the awful smell of something rotting, some desperate core of evil laying claim to everything it touched.

He could almost forget, but he couldn’t.

“I’m right here,” Sapnap said soothingly. “I’m not dead. I know it must suck that I don’t remember any of what we did together, but I’m better than nothing, right?”

“Of course. You’re amazing, Sapnap, I’d love any version of you.”

“Your hair is like, really soft,” Sapnap mumbled, his fingers combing through Karl’s hair. “Like, abnormally soft. It feels like I’m stroking a cloud.”

“Oh, right,” Karl said, not wanting to move. “Uh, maybe don’t dig around too deep in there.” His hair was one of the first things to change when he first started to mess around with timelines, when he first began to forget things. Little things, things he got back eventually, nothing major yet. That would come later. 

“What, do you have lice or something?”

“Not exactly.” Karl let his eyes flutter closed, relaxing against Sapnap. Visions of the blood vines flashed in his vision, but they couldn’t hurt him, not here, not yet. He was safe.

“Uh, Karl?”  
  
“What is it, babe?” He didn’t think before he spoke, but the term of endearment didn’t seem to bother Sapnap. He was clearly preoccupied.

“Are you, uh, a regular human?”

“Why do you ask?”

Karl’s eyes flew open to see Sapnap’s arm sunk into Karl’s hair up to his elbow. Karl’s hair was glowing just slightly, as it had a few times before, and the color was seeping out of his clothes, which was not a good sign.

“Oh, you don’t want to go there,” Karl warned him. “Not without me, anyway. It’s not safe.”

Sapnap pulled his arm back out. “What _was_ that? How did that happen? Are you magic?”

“You already knew I could time travel,” Karl pointed out. “That’s magic, kind of.” The purple returned to his sweater, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, yeah, but I figured you just had some cool magic amulet or totem that did it for you. You know, like a totem of undying? People have those, and I guess I figured there was a time one too. I dunno.” Sapnap’s face grew more and more red as he went on. “It’s just- I’ve never met someone else with magic hair before.”

“What do you mean?” Karl frowned, and Sapnap blushed furiously, shoving part of his face into his shirt.

“Well, I can’t do it right _now,_ ” he said, “but when I get really mad, my hair catches on fire. I haven’t learned how to stop it from happening yet.”

Karl sat up. “And you’ve always done this?” He’d never heard Sapnap mention this in his timeline. He almost felt hurt, wondering why Sapnap couldn’t trust him. 

“Pretty much since I was a kid. Dream always hated it when George managed to piss me off bad enough to start a fire. I’ve been getting better, though.”

“You never told me this.” Karl didn’t know why he felt so betrayed. “We were engaged for a year and a half and you never told me. I can’t believe I never knew about it.”

“Yeah, well-” Sapnap shrugged. “That makes sense. It’s not something I’m proud of. I can’t really control it, and Dream always said it was too dangerous, that I could hurt people. I was probably worried you’d be afraid of getting burned.”

“I could never be afraid of you,” Karl said, reaching up to run his hands through Sapnap’s dark hair, which was perfectly cool to the touch. “Sapnap, I love you.”

His head bent down, his lips close to Karl’s ear, Sapnap said, “I think I love you too.”


	5. could you tell me what's real anymore, cause i wouldn't know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> give me a dance, boy  
> i've got something that i think you'll like  
> just give me a chance, boy  
> i'll be yours but you don't have to be mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Can I Call You Tonight? by Dayglow

“The name’s Wilbur Soot. Nice to meet you.” 

Even now, even this early, he still had an irresistible air to him, a captivating way of moving through the world that made you want to listen to what he had to say, an inscrutable smile that made you want to see it again and again. He wasn’t cruel, not yet, but he was more than halfway there.

“Tommy’s told me all about you,” Karl said sweetly. “Welcome to the Dream SMP. How long have you been here?”

“It’s my first day.” Wilbur looked around, standing primly in the grass outside Tommy’s house, his arms folded. “Tommy told me this place could use a little excitement, and here I am. I wonder, Karl Jacobs, how would you feel about a little excitement?”

“You know who I am?” 

“Tommy’s been telling me things too,” Wilbur said, waving it away. “He says you’re just a riot.”

Maybe that was true of the old Karl, but it certainly wasn't true of Karl now. He made very sure to be kind to Tommy whenever possible, but he was firm on shutting down anything that might anger Dream to the point where he’d be inclined to take Tommy’s discs. As a result, he’d earned a reputation as a bit of a buzzkill.

“Come on,” Wilbur said, grinning conspiratorially and grabbing on to Karl’s wrist, “I saw Dream sneaking around over this way. Let’s go eavesdrop.”

“You’re gonna get banned so fast,” Karl said, but he followed, because he didn't want to let Wilbur out of his sight for a second. 

“Dream would never ban me,” Wilbur said confidently. “He might kill me, though. Come on, I think it’s this way.”

He saw Dream first- Dream, who hadn’t taken off his mask in Karl’s presence since the first moment Karl saw him, who avoided Karl at all costs, and as a result, avoided Sapnap too. As far as Karl knew, Dream had been behaving, avoiding conflicts with Tommy, always looking over his shoulder. 

Now, he was whispering to Sapnap, hiding in the branches of a tree, poised and ready to flee at any moment.

Wilbur silently passed him an invisibility potion. “You’ve been here for a day, how do you have these already?” Karl asked him in a hushed voice.

“Drugs are kind of my thing,” he whispered back, downing his own potion with a wink. He vanished, but still held on to Karl’s wrist, and Karl drank his potion and let Wilbur pull him along right up to the base of the tree.

“I’ve been trying to get you on your own for days now,” Dream was saying. Karl didn't often get to see him with his mask off. He didn't waste the opportunity, committing his face to memory as best he could. “You’re practically glued to his side. I miss you, Sapnap. You’re my best friend.”

“Come on, we’re still best friends, Dream! It’s just, Karl is… different.” Karl heard the little wistful sigh that had accompanied Sapnap speaking his name, and almost sighed in return. 

“What happened to bros before hoes?” It still threw Karl off sometimes, hearing Dream speak like that, even though it had been his first impression of Dream. Dream of the future and the past, the lonely versions of him that Karl knew best, enlisted no such slang terms. He spoke plainly with Karl, and never kindly.

“That went out the window the second you and George got together,” Sapnap scoffed. “I don’t know why it’s such a big deal to you that Karl and I are a thing. Do you not like him?”

“I don’t dislike him,” Dream said, “but I don’t trust him, and I don’t think you should either.”

Karl was silent, hoping Wilbur didn’t read too much into what he was hearing. Without context, it would likely just confuse him. Even the implication of Karl being an enigma was unhelpful to the relationship he hoped to build with Wilbur, but it was better than Wilbur learning more than he should.

“I do trust him, actually,” Sapnap said. “Completely. More than I trust you, I think.”

“What is _that_ supposed to mean? When have I ever given you a reason to distrust me?”

“Uh, never mind. Forget it.” Sapnap was losing his rhythm now, his confidence. “Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize.” Dream gripped the edge of Sapnap’s shirt in a vaguely threatening manner, leaning in. “What did he tell you about me? What did he say?”

“I don’t think we should talk about this,” Sapnap mumbled, looking at his shoes, at Karl directly below him. 

“Did you know I didn’t invite him here?” Dream asked. “Did you know, the first day he showed up, he threatened me? He implied he would hurt my friends, the people I cared about, if I didn’t stay in line. I couldn't ban him, or I would have by now. I’m worried he’s targeting you first, Sapnap. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

Sapnap looked alarmed, but not entirely convinced. “Is that really all true?”

“Completely true. I swear, Sapnap. I really think there’s something up with him. He’s dangerous.”

Karl couldn’t help himself. He shifted just slightly in the grass below the tree. Wilbur was focused on Dream and Sapnap and didn’t hear anything, but Dream certainly did.

“Who’s there?” he asked. The mask returned to his face in an instant. “I will run you through, TommyInnit, if you’re not careful. Don’t intrude on my private conversations.”

“Go go go go go,” Wilbur whispered in his ear, and Karl followed a path blazed by an invisible man through the long grass, running as fast as his feet would take him. The grass Wilbur flattened on his way made their location obvious, but at least Dream couldn’t identify them.

Wilbur led him deep into the woods and down into a cave, where the invis finally wore off. “That was insane,” he said, a wide smile of exhilaration spread across his face. “This server might turn out to be _really_ fun.”

“Wilbur-”

“And _you_! Did all that shit Dream was talking about really happen? If so, I’d like to shake your hand, man. No one gets under Dream’s skin like that. That was incredible.”

“Wilbur, there’s a spider behind you.”

“Ugh.” Wilbur threw a torch down, and the spider revealed itself, launching from the ceiling to land on top of them. Karl pulled out the diamond sword Sapnap had given him, enchanted with Sharpness IV and Mending, and swiped at it. The spider burst into nothing but string and eyes. “You’re stacked, huh?”

“Sapnap gives me everything,” Karl said. “I’m not much of a fighter.”

“Well, Karl,” Wilbur said, grinning at him in the dim torchlight, “I think this’ll be the start of a long friendship.”

“It was you, wasn’t it? You were listening in, right? Not Tommy.”

“Yeah, it was.” Karl didn’t see any point in lying to Sapnap. “Me and Wilbur. He gave me invis. I didn’t know what was happening, I just went along with him because Wilbur is one of the people I really have to keep an eye on.”

“Then you heard everything Dream said.” Sapnap looked into Karl’s eyes. “Please just be honest with me, Karl. Have you told me the truth? Do you really love me? Or are you just here to bring down Dream?”

“I-” Karl stared into his boyfriend’s eyes, words pouring out of his mouth. “Sapnap, of course I love you. I couldn’t fake that. Ever. I came here for _you_. Because you told me to find you again.”

“I want to believe you,” Sapnap said. “But I’ve known Dream for years, and I’ve only known you for a few months. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to think.”

“That’s okay, that’s fine. I completely understand.” Karl’s mind raced, trying to figure out a way to prove to Sapnap that he was trustworthy. “I mean, I know I’m a little suspicious. And I did threaten Dream, but not the way he said. I told him he better not hurt you guys, because I know what he did, from the other timeline. I knew things about him that I shouldn’t know, and I told him. I guess to him it sounded like a threat against you, but I promise you, I would never hurt you, Sapnap. It’d be like hurting myself.”

“There it is,” Sapnap said. “That’s the truth. I heard it.” He grinned, and Karl couldn’t help but grin back, seeing his smile. “But what do I tell Dream?”

“Whatever you want,” Karl said. “I don’t care. I trust you, Sapnap, even when you don’t trust me, even when you’re unsure of yourself. Whatever you do is the right decision.”

Sapnap gave a nervous laugh. “I would _not_ put that kind of confidence in me, Karl. That’s a terrible idea.”

“I know it is,” Karl said. “But I trust you anyway.”


End file.
